Event # 1

Abingdon Square- February 17, 2008- Squires Studio Theatre
Abingdon Square was a fantastic play by Maria Irene Fornes. The play was set in the twentieth century in New York City. The star of the play, Marion, married very young to a man that was old enough to be her father. This relationship soon fell apart as Marion became tempted to do other things and see other men because of her young age. She got pregnant with a total stranger, and her husband, Juster, was under the impression that it was his baby. Soon after Marion had her baby, Juster found a receipt for an apartment and caught her cheating on him. The two were separated and Juster kept the child, Thomas, with him. Marion and Juster continued to watch each other from afar as time passed. Eventually, Marion came back to Juster’s house and wanted to know where Thomas had been. The two had impure thoughts about killing each other and Juster had a gun on him. Juster brought out the gun and shot at the floor to scare Marion. After the gunshot, Juster experienced a stroke and fell into a coma. While Juster was at the hospital, Marion went to be with him every day and take care of him in hopes that she would get to speak to him once more. It was clear that Marion had realized that what she had with Juster was true love, and that she had made a lot of mistakes. Juster finally awoke from his coma and they talked briefly and he sent her away. Afterward, Juster fell out of his hospital bed as he called out for Marion and she soon came back to him. They proclaimed their love for each other as Juster said his last words.
I did not think that there were a lot of connections between the course and the Abingdon Square. The play was about a young, white female in the twentieth century. However, I think that the play did illustrate a role reversal. Normally we hear about men cheating on their wives or sleeping around with a lot of different women. In Abingdon Square, Marion was the one who was cheating on her husband. I think that a lot of people would have seen this as nonstandard, especially, in the twentieth century. In the course, we have talked about what is masculine and what is feminine. In the present time, I think that men think that it is a masculine standard to hook up with as many women as they can. Women on the other hand, are viewed as “sluts” or “easy” if they perform these kinds of actions. In Judy Wajcman’s, Technology as Masculine Culture, she explains that women’s technologies consist of childcare. In the play, Juster keeps the baby for himself and Marion does not take care of him while they are separated. This is also a role reversal that has to do with masculinity and femininity. It is not normal for the husband or dominate male to take care of the children. This is customary as the female’s duty. Other than the concept of masculinity and femininity, I don’t think the play really touched on feminism, race, gender differences, or stereotypes. There was one discussion in the play where Marion was talking to a friend about someone they knew of having a threesome with two girls and one boy. This brought in the concept of lesbians a little but there was no more discussion about it throughout the rest of the play. It did demonstrate that lesbians and homosexuals were thought of as abnormal and frowned upon even in the twentieth century.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed the performance. The play kept me guessing what was going to happen next and was very atypical. This was the first play that I have attended at Virginia Tech and I thought that they did a wonderful job. I also like that the play took place in the twentieth century because, it showed that values and concepts were not completely different from the way that they are now. It was very interesting that Marion was unhappy and thought that she could achieve happiness in someone else but, she ultimately came back to Juster. I think that maybe if she had not married when she was fifteen, Marion would not have felt like she was tied down and needed to be independent. I think that this has a lot to say about why people get married a lot later these days. It seems like nowadays people get married when they are between 25 and 30 for the most part. Although, when my grandmother got married, things were very different and people got married very young, usually when they were teenagers. I think that Fornes’ play was an excellent example of why people started to marry much later. I would definitely recommend this play for anyone and I am glad that I had the chance to go out and see it.